Former Bristol City and Leeds United star Mark Aizlewood on trial for £5 million 'ghost apprentice' fraud

Former Middlesbrough and Cardiff City player Paul Sugrue (left) and former Wales international and Bristol City player Mark Aizlewood arrive at Southwark Crown Court in London, where they are on trial after being charged by the Serious Fraud Office. (Image: PA)

Former Bristol City player Mark Aizlewood is on trial accused of inventing 'ghost learners' to steal £5 million of public cash intended to fund the training of apprentices.

The former Wales international Aizlewood, 57, and Paul Sugrue, 56, who played for clubs including Manchester City, Middlesbrough and Cardiff City, are said to have committed the scam through their business, Luis Michael Training Ltd between 2009 and 2011.

The pair, along with fellow directors Keith Williams, 45, and Christopher Martin, 53, are alleged to have submitted false accounts to colleges to persuade them to do business with the firm – a provider of football-based apprenticeship schemes for young people.

The company then set about enrolling suitable apprentices to claim money from the colleges, which was provided by the Government.

Former Middlesbrough and Cardiff City player Paul Sugrue (left) and former Wales international Mark Aizlewood arrive at Southwark Crown Court in London, where they are on trial after being charged by the Serious Fraud Office in connection with an investigation into the activity of Luis Michael Training Ltd. (Image: Victoria Jones/PA)

But Southwark Crown Court heard some of the apprentices did not exist, while others received just two to three hours training a week.

Prosecutor Alexandra Healy QC said LM Training even got children on work experience in its office to complete tests, reviews and comments on behalf of learners and employers.

She told jurors: “The case concerns fraud involving something in the region of £5 million of public money. That money was intended to be used to fund the training of apprentices.”

The court heard LM Training was set up in 2009 to provide apprenticeship training to eligible learners in partnership with colleges.

The colleges had direct contracts with The Learning and Skills Council (LSC), later renamed the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), receiving public funding to educate students.

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The prosecutor explained: “In order to persuade colleges to do business with them, they submitted false accounts purporting to show LM Training had a history of trading profitably, when the Crown say they only set up LM Training in 2009.

“Having persuaded the colleges to enter into partnership agreements, the defendants went about purporting to identify, enrol and train apprentices so as to be able to claim the funding from the colleges, and the colleges claimed the public funds from the LSC or the SFA.

Jurors were told apprentices had to be employed and receive a salary, as well as receiving a number of appropriate hours training, sitting exams, and submitting portfolios.

Ms Healy said: “But a number of the learners that were enrolled, were in fact what are called ’ghost learners’.

Carmarthen Town manager Mark Aizlewood in 2013

“They didn’t exist, or didn’t know their names were being used to claim public funding, or people were getting qualifications in their name.

“Of those learners who did exist, the majority of them weren’t employed.”

The court heard LM Training said apprentices would receive more than 450 “guided learning hours”, at about 20 hours per week, when in reality they were only receiving two to three hours of tuition.

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“A number of youths from a school in Wales, while doing work experience at the office of LM Training, were involved in completing many of the tests,” said the prosecutor.

“LM Training was claiming money for training learners and it was not entitled to claim that money because the learners were not eligible for funding either because they were ghosts and had not done any training at all, or because they were not receiving the level of training that the paperwork LM were submitting suggested.”

Aizlewood, from Aberdare, Mid Glamorgan, is on trial with Sugrue, from Cardiff, and Williams, 45, from Cemaes Bay, Anglesey.

Central defender Aizlewood played 101 times for Bristol City, and was a Wales international during his time at Ashton Gate.

He signed for the club in 1990 and scored three goals in a three-year spell with the Robins before leaving for Cardiff in 1993.

The former international, Sugrue and Williams each deny two counts of conspiracy to commit false representation.

Jack Harper, 30, who began working with LM Training in December 2009, of Southport, Merseyside, is also on trial and denies one charge of conspiracy to commit false representation, an additional count of fraud and one of using a false instrument.

Jurors were told Martin, from Catmore, in West Berkshire, has pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, while Stephen Gooding, 53, from of Bridgwater, Somerset has admitted one count of the same charge.